Lavenham Guildhall
LocationLavenham, Suffolk
Coordinates52°06′32″N 0°47′48″E / 52.1088°N 0.7966°E / 52.1088; 0.7966
Built1529
Architectural style(s)Jettied timber framing
Listed Building – Grade I
Designated23 January 1958
Reference no.1037186
Lavenham Guildhall is located in Suffolk
Lavenham Guildhall
Location of Lavenham Guildhall in Suffolk

Lavenham Guildhall is a timber-framed municipal building in Lavenham, Suffolk, England. It is Grade I listed.[1]

History

By the late 14th century, Lavenham was at the centre of the East Anglian woollen cloth trade.[2] Its specialised production of woad-dyed broadcloth, known as Lavenham Blue,[3] had made it one of the richest towns in England.[lower-alpha 1] This wealth was the catalyst for four guilds being established in the town by the local merchant families: the most important of these was the Guild of Corpus Christi formed in 1529.[9] The guild established their guildhall at around that time; the design made extensive use of jettied timber framing and featured a gabled porch projecting from the centre of the building on the north-west elevation.[1]

With the decline of the woollen cloth trade and Lavenham's prosperity, the guildhall's role changed. By 1689, the guildhall was in use as a bridewell, and from 1787 it was used as a workhouse.[1] Prison cells and mortuary buildings were established in the area behind the guildhall in 1833.[7] In 1887, the guildhall was acquired by Sir Cuthbert Quilter, a local member of parliament. He soon started restoring the building, but this was only completed in around 1911.[1]

The building was used as a social club for American troops stationed nearby[10] and also as a British Restaurant during the Second World War and, in 1946, Sir William Quilter gave it to the people of Lavenham.[2] It became the property of the National Trust in 1951 and it was subsequently opened to the public as a local history museum.[11][12]

Inside the guildhall, in addition to exhibits presenting the evolution of the guildhall from cloth trade to workhouse, there is a display of memorabilia associated with Lavenham railway station, which was a stop on the Long Melford–Bury St Edmunds branch line before it closed in 1961.[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ One study ranked Lavenham as the fourteenth richest in the country based on the Lay Subsidy (i.e. tax revenue) of 1524,[4][5][6] while another ranked one of its residents, Thomas Spring of Lavenham, as the wealthiest commoner in England by the time of his death in 1523.[7][8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Historic England. "The Guildhall (Grade I) (1037186)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 "History of Lavenham Guildhall". The National Trust. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  3. ↑ "Hundreds of visitors expected at Colours to Dye For weekend in west Suffolk". Sudbury Mercury. 14 July 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  4. ↑ Betterton, Alex (1 January 1995). "The Guildhall, Lavenham". History Today. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  5. ↑ Hoskins, William George (2015). Local History in England. Routledge. ISBN 978-1138835924.
  6. ↑ "The tiny Suffolk village that was once among the richest places in England". The Telegraph. 26 June 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 "Lavenham Guildhall - An exceptional medieval building in Suffolk". Archaeology Travel. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  8. ↑ Walker, Greg (1988). John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 112. ISBN 9780521521390.
  9. ↑ Pevsner, Nikolaus (March 1974). The Buildings of England: Suffolk. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300096484.
  10. ↑ "A very crooked tea: the Crooked House, Lavenham". American Hour. 5 October 2016. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  11. ↑ "Lavenham Guildhall". The National Trust. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  12. ↑ "Have you visited these top 25 historic places in Norfolk and Suffolk?". Ipswich Star. 8 July 2017. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
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